We need each other
by secretfan360
Summary: Alfred and Arthur travel to another world where they discover there is a lot more than meets the eye. With new friends they discover a bond between them that is stronger than their friendship. They find out just how much they need each other.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The odd symbols.

Alfred, for the fifth time that minute, glanced at the clock. "God damn it is the clock going backwards?" he muttered to himself as he continued to listen halfheartedly to the lecture. What class was this again? Oh yeah literature. Alfred "forgot" to do the reading again and honestly had no idea what the plot of the assigned story was so he saw no point in listening. He never cared much for literature. If he were to pick a class that was worth paying attention in it would be science. To be more specific he loved astronomy. When he was a kid his father use to always take him to the country side to see the stars clearly.

"Alfred". "Alfred"!

"Huh"? Alfred said as he was ripped out of his day dreaming.

"Could you please answer the question?"

"Oh right! Uhhh what was the question again?" snickers from his class mates and Arthur, his childhood friend, rolling his eyes caused his checks to turn slightly pink from embarrassment.

"The question, Mr. Jones, was why was it ironic that Oedipus cursed the person who killed the king?"

"Uhhhh" stuttered Alfred but before he could embarrass himself anymore the bell rang. "Yes! Saved by the bell!" The teacher rolled his eyes

"That doesn't mean you're off the hook", he said "I still expect an answer tomorrow and no one is to help you". His gaze drifted towards Arthur as he said this.

"Fuck" whispered Alfred as he gathered his items and headed out the door.

"Alfred you really need to pay more attention in literature" Arthur said while walk towards the lockers.

"Arthur! How can I possibly pay attention to a class that's so boring?"

"It's not boring! Oedipus is a classic piece of literature dating back to..."

"Hey Arthur, what was the answer to the question the teacher asked?" Arthur huffed in annoyance from being interrupted but didn't comment about it.

"You heard the teacher, I can't help you"

"Come on Arthur! No one will know. Just tell me, please!"

"Absolutely not!"

"Fine! I'll just ask Kiku".

"He hasn't read the play; his class hasn't gotten to it yet."

"Crap!"

"Just read the story!"

"I know! Ill Google it, Google knows everything."

"You're hopeless."

"Hahaha! Oh yeah, you're coming over today to help me with my homework right?"

"Yeah I'm still coming."

"Cool! But before we go home I want to show you something cool."

"I'm not sure your definition of cool is the same as mine."

"Awww come on Arthur, don't be like that. Just hear me out."

"Ok shoot"

"It this haunted house and..."

"Nope!" Arthur stated cutting Alfred off.

"Hey! You said you'd hear me out!"

"Alfred, you and I both know that you're easily frightened".

"Am not! And for your information I already went once, last week with Gilbert" Alfred stated confidently but was shot down with the amused look the Arthur was giving him.

"And you were not scared at all?"

"N-No of course not!"

"You're a terrible liar you know."

"Come on Arthur! You're my best friend and I really want you to see it. Pretty please!" Alfred said while looking straight into Arthur's eyes with a pout on his face that Arthur just couldn't say no to. With a sigh and a slight smile Arthur agreed to go.

"How far is it?" Arthur asked as they headed toward the direction of the haunted house. More like supposedly haunted because the only reason it was considered haunted was because no one has lived there in years. Arthur assumed it was because of the terrible location because according to Alfred it was in the middle of a forest on the outskirts of town. Why there would be a random lone house in the middle of a forest was beyond Arthur's Knowledge. It's even stranger that it hasn't been torn down. He turned to Alfred to clear up why this was.

"Oh. Well according to rumors, the house has been torn down many times but the next day it would come back". Alfred said.

"Pfff that hardly sounds believable".

"It's totally believable!"

"Oh really? Do you have any proof?"

"Uhhh"

"Exactly"

"Oh come on Arthur don't be so uptight it's fun to pretend it's all true". Arthur rolled his eyes and continued walking. He always did agree on almost anything Alfred wanted, ever since they first met back in 3rd grade. Now they were sophomores in high school and Arthur still finds it difficult to say no to Alfred. He just had this charisma and charm that Arthur couldn't help but fall for. Maybe this is why Arthur had a huge crush on Alfred. He liked him for a while but never told anybody. He decided it's best to keep his feelings to himself because he knew that Alfred saw him as a friend but he doubted that Alfred like him the way he like Alfred. He was ok with being friends (even though he wished it could be more) so he isn't going to say anything in fear of ruining their friendship.

"Arthur, were here" Arthur shook his head to clear his thoughts and looked up at the house they arrived at. It wasn't a mansion by any means nor was it a shack. It was a decent sized house that looked fairly normal for the most part. It had a slight eerie feel to it but Arthur assumed it was because it hadn't been cared for in years.

"Alright, let's go inside" Alfred said while tugging Arthurs arm. Arthur followed and they both entered the house. It was dark and dusty in the house and it clearly looked better on the outside than it did on the inside. There was broken glass and bit and pieces of furniture everywhere. To top it all off it had those wooden floor boards, the ones that squeak when you walk. There was absolutely nothing special about this house and Arthur cursed himself for agreeing to do something that was not only stupid but a complete waste of time.

"Alfred what exactly is "cool" about this house?" Instead of answering him Alfred nearly knocked Arthur over with a hug. Arthur's eyes widened and his heart's speed increased at how close Alfred was to him.

"Get off me!" Arthur yelled while trying to pry Alfred off him "I thought you said you weren't scared!"

"I'm not! I'm just protecting you!" Alfred said with his eyes glued shut and shaking slightly.

"Yeah right! From wha..." Than out of the corner of his eye Arthur saw a flash of yellow light. He turned towards the light and saw that some symbols on the wall. Odd were those there before? "Alfred what's that?" Alfred, momentarily forgetting his fear, looked towards where Arthur was pointing. "Were those symbols on the wall before?"

"No! Dude that's too creepy, let's get out of here!"

"No wait. Let's go look" Arthur said while walking towards the wall.

"No way! Weird symbols suddenly appearing out of nowhere? This place is totally haunted!"

"You were the one who showed me this house in the first place. Besides, I thought you said you weren't afraid."

"I'm not!"

"Well than come on." After a moment of hesitation Alfred followed Arthur to the symbols on the wall.

"Strange" Arthur said "I've never seen anything resembling these symbols in history before." Since Arthur loved literature he loved studying history as well. For a long time he has been looking into many different civilizations and cultures but these symbols reminded him of nothing.

"Alright we saw the symbols. Now can we please leave?" Alfred looked toward Arthur but it didn't seem like he was listening. He was staring at the symbols intensively with his green eyes glossy and out of focus. "Arthur?" No response. "Arthur!" Alfred yelled while shaking his arm.

Arthur broke out of his trance, shook his head, and simply stated. "It says: The entrance".

"What? The entrance? I thought you said you didn't recognize the symbols. How did you read it?"

"I-I'm not sure. I just stared at the line of symbols at the top and it suddenly became clear to me."

"Ok. This place is officially creepy but I wonder what it's an entrance to."

"Well I only read the top and it looks like more is written down here. Maybe it will tell us."

"Well than read it."

"I'm not sure if I can do it again."

"Well last time you just stared at the symbols and they made sense right? Just do that again." Arthur nodded his head, stared at the symbols, and once again had a glossy look in his eye.

About a minute later he shook his head and stated with a slight blush, "It says in order to open, the two people that made these symbols appear must hold hands and put the opposite had on the wall"

"Ok, it tells the how. Does it say anything else?"

"No"

"Hmmm so what do you think Arthur? What to see if it really works? Do you want to see what's on the other side?"

"I am curious since I could somehow read these symbols, that counts for something right?"

"Hahaha well you know what they say, curiosity often leads to trouble. But hey trouble is my middle name!" Alfred said while giving Arthur a cheeky grin. Arthur smiled and took a deep breath, this was probably not a good idea but the interests in those symbols are forcing him to go.

"Aright ready?" Alfred said while holding out his hand. Arthur nodded and took ahold of Alfred's hand. They both put there opposite hand on the wall and then the wall started to glow. The light go brighter and brighter until it disappeared altogether and so did Alfred and Arthur.

TBC...

**Authors note:**

**Hey guys so I just finished the first chapter of me first fanfic! Oh i do hope you like it! Please review for mistakes or suggestions or if you just want to tell me something about the story. Review are always welcome so don't hesitate. **

**A quick note: In case you didn't know Oedipus the king is a wonderful play with a big plot twist. If you never read it I encourage you to. **

**Oh and sorry about how short this chapter is. The next one will be longer I promise!**

**I'll update soon! Thank you so much for reading.**


	2. Chapter 2: Where are we?

Chapter 2: Where are we?

Alfred felt the warm sunlight on his face as he began to regain conciseness. He opened his eyes slowly, squinting from the sun and groaned a bit from the slight pain in his head. He shielded the sun with his hand and began to blink to try and get an image of where he was. All he could seem to tell was he was outside looking up at patches of the bright blue sky from between tree tops. The ground was hard and had lots of dirt and twigs everywhere. He could feel some small rocks under his head and feel the loss dirt between his fingers so he assumed this was some kind of forest. It was hard to think straight though due to the headache he had and the added weight on his body. Wait a minute added weight? He lifted his head to see that Arthur was still asleep and on top of him. Alfred's checks went bright red as he tried to get Arthur off of him.

He grabbed Arthur by the shoulders but before he could push him off Arthur groaned and put both his hands on the floor to lift himself up. He used one hand to rub his eyes and head and then he opened his bright green eyes only to have radiant blue one staring back at him. He just stared for a few seconds not really comprehending what was going on. When he finally realized he was on top of Alfred his face turned red and he quickly pushed himself off up and tried not to fall over from the surprise._ I was so close to him, so very close _they both thought with still heated faces as they avoided eyes contact. They stood up and started patting down their pants and shirts from the dirt, not saying anything, and making the silence very awkward. Alfred, after a while, cleared his throat and said "so... Any idea where the hell are we?"

Arthur, relived this awkward silence was over replied "I have no idea." They looked around to examine their surroundings, it did seem they were in a forest but the trees were not all cramped together, they were more spaced out. "The last thing I remember", Arthur continued, "was going to that haunted house and reading those odd symbols..."

"Oh my god dude it worked!"

"What?"

"Remember? The symbols said "The entrance", this must be what it's an entrance to."

"It would seem but where is here exactly?"

"Not sure but man this is so cool! We were on our way home to do boring homework and now we ended up in some weird forest. Adventure here we come!" Alfred screamed to the sky. Suddenly there was a sound of rustling bushes in the distance.

Arthur slapped his hand over Alfred's mouth and whispered harshly into his ear "Quite! We don't know where we are or what's even here. You could attract some unwanted attention."

"Calm down man I'm sure it's just the wind. Hey what's that on your hand?" Arthur looked at his right hand and saw there was a weird symbol that looked like it was drawn with ink, now he was sure he didn't see this this symbol before. "Did you draw on your hand or something?"

"No I didn't have this before. Hey it looks like you have one on your hand too." Alfred looked at his hand and sure enough the same symbol that was Arthur's hand appeared on Alfred's. "Come to think of it", Arthur continued "These symbols showed up on the hands we used to touch the wall… I wonder what it means."

"Ahhh too many unknowns!" Alfred yelled

"Be quite Alfred!" Arthur said than they heard more rustling sounds came from the bushes followed by a low growl.

Alfred swallowed hard and whispered "I don't think it's the wind this time". They backed up a step but whatever was in the bushes took a step forward. They could see the red glowing eyes of the creature as it looked at them from the bushes. Suddenly the creature charged at them, leaping from behind the bushes and ran towards them. They had no idea what to do. Time seemed to slow down as they stared at the creature with horror struck eyes. The creature kind of looked like a wolf but was much bigger, faster, and seemed almost evil. His eyes were glowing with anger and the closer he got, the brighter they seemed. Reality finally caught up to them and Alfred screamed run! They didn't take a second to ponder; they turned and took off as fast as they possibly could. "What the hell is that thing?" Alfred screamed as they ran.

"I don't know! But I do know I don't want to get caught by it ahhh!" Arthur yelled and suddenly he wasn't next to Alfred anymore.

"Arthur!" Alfred yelled and stopped to look at where his friend had tripped and fallen. The creature was almost upon Arthur and picking up speed. "Fuck! Arthur no!" Alfred screamed in fear as he ran to help his best friend. Arthur lifted his head and turned to see how close the creature was to him His eyes widened in fear as the creature was about to jump on him.

"Ahhh stay back!" Arthur said while shielding his face and closing his eyes. He was gonna die! He was gonna be ripped to shreds! He waited for the impact but nothing came. He opened one of his eyes to find the remains of a green light that seemed to have come out of his hand. He looked up but saw no creature. He stood up and saw the creature was a fair distance away on the ground as if it's been thrown. What just happened?

"Arthur!" Arthur turned around to be captured in a hug by Alfred. "Oh my God! Thank goodness you're ok! That was so close! I thought I was gonna lose you."

"I'm fine Alfred but what just happened?"

"I don't know some weird green light came out of your hand and it flung what that thing is over there."

"That's odd."

"Whatever anyway are you ok? You scared the shit out of me!" Arthur looked up at Alfred's eyes and could see the concern in them. Arthur smiled

"I'm ok, sorry for worrying you" Alfred smiled and hugged Arthur and this time Arthur hugged back.

"Oh shit! I think that thing is still alive." They let go of each other and began to creep backwards as the creature stood up. They were about to run away but before they did arrows came out of nowhere and hit the creature right in the heart, killing it this time for sure. "Alfred and Arthur let out their breaths that they have been holding and look towards the direction the arrows came from. Emerging from the trees was a young lady with long brown hair and green eyes. She wore tight black pants and a long sleeved white shirt. She had a bow and arrow and a sword on her side as well.

"What are you two doing here? You should know the forest is dangerous. Coming here without any weapons? Are you stupid or something?" The mysterious woman stated while looking at Arthur and Alfred with angry yet concerned eyes.

"We didn't know", Alfred said "we don't even know where we are."

The woman looked at them with one eye brow raised and said "Are you even from around here? Why are you wearing such odd clothes?"

"Could you please tell us were here is exactly?" Arthur contoured.

"This is the land of Etruria where do you come from?"

"Uhhh Chicago" Alfred said dumbfound.

"Chee ca go" the woman said slowly, "never heard of it. Which direction is this land?"

"Umm…" Alfred started but was cut off by more rustling of bushes and the sound of low growls.

"Shit! I was careless to have talked in the forest. Here come more monsters. You there, can you fight?" she asked pointing at Alfred.

"Uhh not really but I could try."

"Alright, here use this." She took off the sword tied around her waist and handed it to Alfred. Alfred had never used a sword before. He held one when he was at the store once and waved it around to be funny (even if he got in trouble for it but that's not the point) but he never really used a sword but hey how hard could it be? He grabbed the sword and as soon as his hand touched the sword it gave off a blue light. _Wow cool sword_ Alfred thought. He held the sword with both hands as his eyes scanned his surroundings. Two of the same creature they saw before jumped out. The woman started shooting arrows at one of them while Alfred charged at the other. To be blunt he was terrified, his hands were shaking but this sudden confidence came from his urge to make sure Arthur was safe. He can't let this thing kill him or Arthur so he must at least try. He swung the sword and it hit the creature in the shoulder and left a surprisingly huge gash.

"Wow this is one strong sword" Alfred said to himself. Despite the fatal wound the creature received it charged again. This time Alfred held the sword with one hand and jabbed the sword at the creature's chest. The sword went through his as if he was made of butter and the creature fell to the floor dead.

"Alfred! How did you do that?" Arthur said while running towards Alfred.

"It wasn't me. I think it was this awesome sword."

"No, my sword has no ability like that. Plus it's never glowed blue before."

"Wait are you telling me I made it glow blue? How did I manage to do that?"

"A lot of weird things have been happening, first I could somehow read those symbols on the wall than we ended up in this odd place than I used some kind of green light to send the creature flying and you used some kind of blue light that made the sword stronger."

"Don't forget these weird symbols on our hands" Alfred said while holding up his hand.

"That symbol, I've seen it somewhere before" The woman stated.

"You have? Where?" Alfred and Arthur said at the same time.

"I don't remember exactly but something seems weird about you two".

"Ummm weren't you listening? What we just said about the blue and green light?" Alfred said

"That's not it, it's normal for you to use magic. Lots of people here do."

"WHAT?!" Alfred and Arthur said at the same time.

"We can't talk here, it's dangerous. Follow me."

"I don't think I told you but my name is Elizabeth but you can call me Liz for short" the woman said as they walked out of the forest.

"Nice to meet you! My name is Alfred and this is my best friend Arthur"

"Pleasure" Arthur said with a smile. "So what do you mean we can I magic?"

"I simply meant you can do magic, why is that so weird?"

"Well where were from magic isn't accustom" Arthur said.

"Ah yes this chee ca go place. Wow you can't do magic there? Are you sure that's possible?"

"Arthur do you think we might have gone to another world?"

"At this point I'll believe anything" Arthur replied.

"You two are from another world? Whow I heard that was a possibility but I thought it was just myths" Liz said.

"You believe us?" Arthur said.

"Well it's very weird that you don't have magic where you're from. I've never heard of any place that didn't have at least some magic. Plus your guy's magic is strange; I've never seen nor heard of anybody being able to transfer their magic to another object like you did Alfred. Oh and Arthur, you said that you used magic to get rid of that monster with saying a spell right? That's unheard of as well." Liz said, "Also I have no idea what you're wearing and those symbols on your hands are still bothering me. I feel like I've seen it somewhere before but I can't put my finger on it."

"I see. So Liz what were those things in the forest exactly?" Alfred asked.

"Those were wolfs." Liz simply stated.

"Those wolves were huge! Is this just how there are in this world?" Arthur said.

"No. The animals here are quite harmless. Those wolves aren't normally that large. They have been altered by a powerful curse that's been over this land for centuries."

"Curse? What kind of curse?" Alfred asked.

"Well its kind a long and confusing story. Well not really but I don't want to leave any important parts out so I'll tell you as soon as we make it to the base. Than you guys can meet my friends too." Alfred and Arthur nodded and continued to walk along side Liz with their heads buzzing with many questions. Just what did they get themselves into?

TBC...

**Author note:**

**Hey guys! Ok so you know how I promised I would make chapter two longer? well I did kinda made it longer, even if it wasn't by much XD sorry guys I'll try my best. I picked the place Chicago just because I live in Chicago so I thought eh why not? As for the name of the land I just looked up ancient town names and picked one that looked pretty. I know not the best way but oh well. Ahhh I didn't expect people to like my story. It made me so happy. Thank you guys so much! The reviews made me smile. :) Oh and the person that asked what a sophomore was it the equivalent to a 10th grader. So I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please reviews or questions are always welcomed and they do motivate me. Thanks again for reading and I will update soon. Love you guys!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three: You guys could help us.

The sky was blue, the grass was green. If it weren't for their little adventure in the forest Alfred and Arthur wouldn't have even considered that they weren't in the suburbs of Chicago taking a walk. Everything seemed normal. They continued walking until they were completely out of the forest and were now walking through a flat prairie. Arthur squinted to look ahead but all he could see was grass. Just how long would they be walking? "Excuse me Liz." Arthur asked

"Yes?" Liz replied with a grin.

"Exactly where are we going? All I can see is grass."

"Oh yes there is grass for miles."

"Is that how long we are going to be walking?"

"Of course not" Liz said with a smile "We are almost there."

"Almost where?" Arthur said sounding annoyed.

"You'll see" she replied as they continued to walk.

After a while they stopped in an area that looked no different than the rest of the prairie. Liz looked at Alfred and Arthur, gave them a grin, and said "were here." The boys looked around in confusion. What is she talking about? There isn't anything here. They looked towards Liz for an explanation but she was kneeling on the floor. One of her hands was on the grass and her eyes were closed. She muttered something under her breath and a circle of yellow light appeared around the three. The light got brighter and they disappeared. They reappeared in what seemed like a dimmed corridor with a door at the end of it. "Where are we?" Alfred said asking the obvious question.

"This is the entrance of the base, right through that door. Once in there you will meet five friends of mine that are after the same goal as me. This base is supposed to be a secret so they might get angry that I brought you guys here.

"Then why did you bring us here?" Arthur asked.

"I can't really explain it but you guys feel trust worthy. I know it sounds weird but hopefully my friends will agree but just in case they don't, stay close behind." Alfred and Arthur nodded nervously and walked closely behind Liz down the hall and towards the door. "Guys I'm back." Liz yelled as she opened the door to revel the room to Alfred and Arthur. It consisted of a fairly large room with a table in the middle. The table had many books and pieces of paper scattered around. They could see ink and quills near the books and lots of maps all over the walls. Across the door there was another corridor but they couldn't see what was down there.

"Is anyone here?" Liz yelled louder as they stepped into the room.

"Liz, is that you? "A voice said for the corridor.

"Yup!" Liz said back

"Great I'm glad you're back", the unknown person said as the sound of the footsteps got louder. "Have you found anything that could-" The young man stopped abruptly when he saw that Liz wasn't alone. The young man was kind of short with his shoulder length brown hair tied back in a ponytail. He had brown eyes and they were giving Arthur and Alfred a very confused look.

"Liz who are they" The man asked

"This is Alfred and Arthur." Liz said cheerfully.

"That's fantastic now what are they doing here?"

"Yao don't get upset".

"What do you mean don't get upset, what part of secret base do you not understand?

"I know but listen, I think these guys can help us."

Yao looked at Liz with a raised eyebrow "oh?" He questioned.

"Yeah" Liz continued they have some really unique powers."

"Like what?"

"Well I can transfer my magic into items." Alfred said

"And I can use magic without spells" Arthur continued

"Interesting, I have never heard of such powers" Yao said.

"Oh and they have these symbols on their hands and they seem familiar. Like I've seen the symbols somewhere before." Liz said. Alfred and Arthur held out their hands for Yao to see.

"You're right they do seem familiar but I'm not sure why."

Yoa since they have such unique powers they might be able to help us." Liz said

"Yes perhaps-"

"Wait a minute!" Arthur yelled causing everyone to look at him. "I don't appreciate being talked about as if we are not here. You're making us a part of your team but we don't even know what's going on! Care to explain?"

"well-" Liz started but was interpreted by the door swinging open suddenly and slamming into the wall.

"We are back losers! Oh and guess what? We found nothing new to help us! Isn't that a surprise?" A very loud man was standing in the door way. He had red eyes, white hair, and a certain smirk on his face that gave him an arrogant look.

"Move out of the way Gilbert I want to get though" said a young girl behind him. She had short blond hair with a purple bow in it and green eyes.

"Alright whatever Lili. Hey who the hell are you guys?" Gilbert said pointing at Alfred and Arthur.

"Looks like we have to explain again." Liz said. They explained the situation to the new comers and showed them the symbols.

"Ok you guys know about us but we still have no idea about this place." Alfred said after Liz finished explaining.

"Before we tell you about this world I am curios. How did you manage to travel to this world?" Yoa asked.

"Oh we didn't tell you how we came to this world did we?" Arthur said.

"Oh yeah you guys did mention something about odd symbols on a wall back when we were in the forest" Liz said.

"Yes, we got here by going to this abandon building back in our world. There was a flash of light and some odd symbols came up. I couldn't recognize the symbols yet I could somehow read them. It said that me and Alfred should hold hands and place the other hand on the wall. We blacked out and when we woke up we found ourselves in the forest."

"I see" Yoa simply stated.

"Now it's your guys turn. What is this about a curse on this land?" Alfred asked.

"Our land has had a curse on it for centuries. It's fuzzy about where the curse came from but we do know that it's made the gentle animals of the forest turn into viscous animals."

"We also have the dick ruler named Ivan. He is a total tyrant and he treats everyone in Etruria like shit." Gilbert said.

"He is planning something, we can tell but we aren't sure what. We can't have him making our world more miserable. We have to stop him." Liz continued.

"We are not the first to try and stop him. Lots of people before us have tried but they failed. He's been alive for quite a while, longer than normal people so we believe he is using some kind of special magic to stay alive" Lili said

"The people who tried before were able to write down what they found out about Ivan though. So we are using that information and trying to gather more. Yoa said

"We know that the only way to destroy him is to use some type of rare magic and that Ivan is really hard to find. We tried tracking him but his movements are random." Gilbert said.

"That's where you guys come in. Since we have never seen your type of magic maybe you can help us."

"So you want us to help you defeat Ivan?" Arthur asked.

"Well to put it into simple terms. Yes." Yoa said.

"You guys! Just because we have magic powers doesn't mean we know how to use them." Alfred said.

"We realize that. In the forest you guys got lucky so you need to train to fight." Liz said,

"We don't have people with your magic; the best we can do is have Lili train Arthur with magic using spells." Yoa said.

"What about me?" Alfred asked.

"You use a sword back in the forest correct? We can Have Kiku train you to use a sword." Yoa said.

"Magic training? Sword fight? We got ourselves into quite a mess didn't we Arthur?" Alfred said with a chuckle.

"So are you guys gonna help us or not?" Gilbert asked with a smirk.

"I don't suppose we have much of a choice. We know nothing about this world or how to get back." Arthur said.

"Great! Then let's introduce ourselves as well as give our abilities." Liz said. "You guys know my name is Liz and my ability doesn't really involve magic. I'm excellent with a bow and arrow but I can also use other weapons like the sword I gave you Alfred. I'm just overall a good fighter."

"My name is Yoa and I use my power to amplify my martial art techniques I'm also quick on my feet."

"My name is Lili and I'm a verbal magic user. I'm also a healer but I'm still working on that."

"I'm the awesome Gilbert and I use my magic to read minds."

"Really? Alfred said.

"Yup! For example I just read your mind and I know what you think of your friend there." Gilbert said with a smirk. Alfred's cheeks turned red and as he kept his eyes away from Arthurs.

"Don't worry I'll let you losers figure it out on your own but that doesn't mean I'm not going to tease you about it." Gilbert said laughing. Alfred and Arthur buried their faces into their hands. _Oh great _they both thought. "Haha I heard that."

"Leave them alone Gilbert you're making this awkward for them" Liz said with an annoyed look.

"Oh where are Kiku and Natalia?" Lili asked. "They aren't back yet, I guess you guys will meet them later." Liz said

"So do you guys live here?" Alfred asked looking around the base.

"Yup we are all we have left, we are determined to have Ivan pay for what he did to us" Liz said with an angry tone in her voice. Alfred was about to ask her to elaborate but Arthur whispered into his ear "seems like a touchy subject I'm sure they will tell us when they are ready." Alfred nodded him head and decided not to press on.

"Let me show you guys around." Lili said and she led them down the corridor and it opened up to a large area with many doors. "Each of these rooms is a bedroom and we all have our own. Unfortunately we only have one room left so you guys will have to share a room. I hope you don't mind."

"No it's fine we are best friends so sharing a room would be great right Arthur?"

"Of course" Arthur said with a smile.

"Than this will be your room." Lili said while opening the door,

"How long will we be staying here?" Arthur asked as they walked into the room.

"I wish I could tell you but I'm not sure." Lili said. The room was medium sized with some books on a bookshelf, one bed, and a couch.

"I call the bed!" Alfred yelled as soon as they got a good look around the room.

"Fine" Arthur said with an annoyed tone "But tomorrow you get the couch and I get the bed." Lili smiled as the boys bickered.

"Tomorrow I'm going to see just how different your magic is from mine. Hopefully I can teach you some spells. As for you Alfred, once you meet Kiku, you can train with him"

"Is this all necessary? It doesn't seem you guys know much about this Ivan. What makes you so sure you can find him?" Arthur asked. Lili looked at him for a second than turned her face and seemed lost in thought. She stayed like that for quite a few minutes so Arthur thought she wasn't going to answer and wanted to change the subject. Before he could, she spoke.

"We have to try." She said still not looking at the boys "If we give up he wins. Sure we aren't certain if we will find him. Hell we might find him but can't find the magic to defeat him but we have to try." Her eyes finally met with Alfred's and Arthur's and they could see her eyes were glossy.

"I'm sorry" Arthur said feeling guilty.

"No don't be. Its ok" she said with a smile. "Anyway let's go back to the main room. I think Natalia and Kiku are back" They both nodded and made their way back to the main room. When they arrived they saw two newcomers. One of them had dark brown eyes and black hair and the other one had long blond hair with a blue bow on top of her head and dark blue eyes.

"Oh there they are" Liz said when she saw Alfred and Arthur. "Boys this is Kiku who specializes in swords and this is Natalia who has the ability to make people unconscious for a while."

"I'm very pleased to meet you" Kiku said.

"It's great to meet you too!" Alfred said.

"Looks like I'll be teaching you some sword techniques. I look forward to be working with you Alfredsan."

"No need to be so formal Just Alfred is fine."

"Liz how come Natalia hasn't said anything?" Arthur whispered.

"She doesn't talk much but she is very strong and determined."

"Oh I see" Arthur said. While they were all talking Yoa was sitting a distance away deep in thought.

"Hey" a voice said and Yoa looked up. "I know what you're thinking. You think that there is more to those boys than we think." Gilbert said.

"I'm not certain". Yoa replied

"I know but whatever. If those losers are anything special it will show soon enough."

"Yes I guess you're right."

"Of course I am! I'm the awesome Gilbert!"

"Yes yes whatever. Alright guys we should get to bed." Yoa yelled out.

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"Hey Arthur?" Alfred asked from the bed "Are you awake?"

"Yes what is it Alfred?" Arthur responded lifting his head from the couch

"Do you think we can it? Do you think we can really help?"

"I don't know Alfred but we can try."

"I hope so"

"What? Are you worried?"

"Of course not! I'm totally gonna become a hero!"

"Whatever you say." Arthur said with a chuckle. "Now go to sleep you idiot."

"Arthur. I'm glad I got dragged onto this with you."

"Go to sleep Alfred."

"Ok. Good night Arthur!" Alfred said while laughing.

"Good night you git."

TBC…

**Author note:**

**Hello guys! Sorry this chapter took a little longer because I had to know what the plot was going to be exactly. I hope you like it. So yeah some new characters! Couple things sorry if I made it seem like Hungry was an airhead. She isn't stupid or anything I just wanted to make her nice. Don't worry she can kick some serious ass! Yeah I didn't use aru for china. I just find it unnecessary. I'm trying not to be too stereotypical here which is why I put such an odd bunch of characters together. I know making Ivan evil is stereotypical but don't worry I know what I'm doing (I think XD) So guys I would really love it if you would leave some reviews. I want to make sure you guys are liking the story so please let me know! Just in case**

**Liz: Hungry**

**Yoa: China**

**Gilbert: Prussia (when writing his part I kept wanting to write "I'm the awesome Prussia") **

**Lili: Liechtenstein**

**Kiku: Japan **

**Natalia: Belarus **

**I hope you guys will keep reading! Oh a special shout out to anitta for being awesome and motivating me. I hope you like my chapter dear. Will update soon! Peace out guys!**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four: Training

A man with short milk-chocolate hair and eyes that rarely showed themselves ran frantically down the hallway, ignoring his lung's protest for air. He had just heard the news that Ivan has declared war and he needed to warn everyone before it was too late. He feverishly looked everywhere but was unable to find them. After what seemed like an eternity he found them and while gasping for air, he spoke in between breaths to the people in the room "I… I've been looking everywhere…! Ivan…!"

"What's wrong, Feliciano?" uttered a large man with a thick German accent, his blue eyes fixed on Feliciano, worry showing in his face.

"Ludwig!" He dropped to his knees, exhausted from running, but looked up and continued talking, pausing frequently to breathe "I just heard the Ivan has declared war, I came to tell you guys!"

"Ivan is declaring war?" He stood up, the chair he was sitting on dropped behind him, creating a horrible noise which echoed in the hallways. All their faces oozed disbelief.

"But why?! We've kept under the radar lately, haven't we? We haven't sparked anything" A fair haired, emerald eyed man stated, with a hint of alarm which sped up his voice and raised it a pitch higher.

"He knows about the staff Art." The third man with ocean eyes and gold hair stated suddenly.

"What?" The three men said at the same time.

"How do you know Al?" Asked Arthur

After a moment, as if choosing his words carefully, he looked around, unsure of his words, "I can sense it"

After a pause, a sigh was heard in the room "…Damn. How did he find out?" Ludwig asked.

Alfred looked down, and back at Arthur "I don't know… but this is serious." Alfred said.

"Yes we have to protect the staff, it could be bad if Ivan gets it" Arthur whispered.

"Damn it!" Alfred shouted, standing up and banging his fists on the table, his chair doing the same that Ludwig had done, except this one, old, and with more force behind it, broke into pieces that spread all over the floor. "And we were so close to-"

"Alfred!" Alfred shot open his eyes and his breath hitched to see green eyes extremely to his face. Arthur did always have amazing eyes but they were looking at him in worry. "Alfred, are you ok?" Alfred lifted his hand and started rubbing his eyes and a sharp pain in his head made him jump up.

It was a dream.

That was a weird dream though. Two of the people in the dream were random strangers but the other two… They looked just like… "Alfred why aren't you answering me? Arthur yelled, ripping Alfred from his thoughts. "Talk to me, you idiot, are you alright?"

"Huh?" Alfred looked around, confusing touching his face for a second, and a review of yesterday flashed through his head, reminding him of his situation. He groaned looking at the ceiling. "Yeah I'm alright. Why?"

"You had a odd look on your face while you were sleeping, did you have a nightmare?" Arthur asked and sat next to Alfred on the bed.

Alfred tried to ignore his urge to just grab Arthur and make out with him on top of his bed, he settled by putting an arm around his eyes and relaxing back into his pillow. "Not a BAD one, but it was… weird."

"Explain."

He breathed in, and did his best to recall the dream he had woke up from "Well I had this dream about these four people, right? One named Ludwig and the one with brown hair but I can't pronounce his name, it sounded Italian or something. Then there were two other people. They were talking about someone named Ivan…?"

"Isn't he the ruler of this place? The guy we are helping defeat?" Arthur tried to remember, but he had been a little preoccupied with finding a way to get home that to surround himself with the affairs of their current whereabouts.

"Yeah, I think so." Alfred uttered

"What were they saying about Ivan?"

Alfred pulled back his arm and sat up in his bed, twisting his body to face Arthur.

"Well, they were saying that Ivan was declaring war. They also said something about a… staff or something, and that it was bad that Ivan knew about it."

"That is rather… odd."

"But that's not even the weirdest thing! The two other guys in my dream, right? You're not gonna believe me, looked like older versions of me and you!"

Arthur chuckled and joked "You dreamt about the future?"

"I don't know dude "

Arthur was thoughtful for a minute, looking into Alfred's eyes. He tore his gaze from Alfred to the ground, and thought about the possibility of fortune-telling dreams. I mean, how much more ridiculous could this get? They had just found out a couple hours ago that they had magic powers, maybe fortune telling isn't way off what these people call "normal".

"Do you think this means something?" He finally muttered

"Probably not." He leaned back, but continued to look at Arthur. "I mean it is just a dream, right?"

"I suppose so." Arthur gave Alfred a reassuring smile and after any of them could say anything, there was a knock on the door.

"Hey boys, are you up? Can I come in?" Liz yelled from behind the door.

Arthur immediately stood up and dusted his clothes off on the way to opening the door "Yeah we're up, you can come in." Alfred said

Liz flashed them a warm smile. "Good morning!" she said cheerfully, throwing her arms up, accidently hitting the side of the doorframe, and her expression changing from excitement to pain, making Arthur and Alfred chuckle.

"Good morning" They replied.

Rubbing her hand, she asked them, with the same excitement in her voice "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes we did. Thank you." Arthur said.

"Well of course you did." She spoke in a matter-of-fact voice. "After all you were sleeping next to each other, weren't you? Kept each other nice and warm" She said with a teasing smile. Alfred and Arthur took a second to realize what she said than their cheeks turned pink.

"N-no we didn't-" Alfred stuttered.

"Oh you guys are so cute together" Liz said interrupting Alfred.

"No, please listen, we-" Arthur said, raising his hands and waving them

"Anyway as soon as you boys wash up you can come and eat breakfast with us. I'm sure you know the shower is in the back, and I brought you some clothes that you can change into while we wash yours, they're quite… dirty." Liz said once again interrupting the boys from correcting her. She then smiled, winked at them, and shut the door behind her, humming away.

Arthur, still red in the face, huffed in annoyance "Honestly, what's with everyone, can't they worry about their own affairs?"

"Y-yeah… Umm, hey Arthur?"

"Yes? what is it, Alfred?" He looked at him, his face questioning him

"Uh, never mind, lets get sorted out, I'm starving."

They took turns taking showers, found that they had now a change of clothes at were more suited for their surroundings, left their room, and made their way down the hall.

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Yesterday's table looked exactly the same, if not, messier. No one bothered organizing the table to make room for their plates of food, they just kind of shoved the papers towards the middle and settled for the bit of room on the sides. Around the table, everyone sat and chatted. Gilbert and Liz were talking, well, ARGUING was what it looked like, both faces had threat written on their eyes. Lili and Natalia were talking and laughing quietly and Kiku looked submerged in a deep conversation with Yao. As soon as Alfred and Arthur walked into the room Gilbert wasted no time in rushing over and placing one arm around each of them, laughing loudly, getting the attention of everyone in the room.

"There you lovebird are!" Alfred and Arthur looked in opposite directions, both turning pink. "What the hell took you so long, too busy with each other?" Gilbert said with a wink.

"Give it a rest, you bloody idiot!" Arthur yelled at Gilbert his face turning red from both anger and embarrassment, and he struggled to leave his grasp. This caused Gilbert to laugh mockingly.

"Now why would I do that? You guys should really give it a rest" Gilbert yelled out.

Arthur glared at Gilbert, he shot dagger eyes that would make any normal person flinch, but didn't affect Gilbert at all

"What's that suppose to mean?" he spat. Gilbert rolled his eyes at Arthur's response, and spoke as if he was saying something stupidly obvious.

"Oh please, you two have got to just get together already! I know I said I wouldn't interfere, but this is just freaking ridiculous… The sexual tension between you two is too much to ignore! I've seen your thoughts and MAN-" Two people snorted and the others struggled to hide their chuckles.

"Now you listen here-!" Arthur started, but was cut off when Alfred turned him around to face him.

"Arthur. Calm down. He's just trying to provoke you and get a laugh, don't give him the satisfaction of knowing he's beating you." Alfred said. Arthur looked at his best friend, and was surprised to find that he was they had switched roles, with Alfred being the voice of reason. "Hey don't give me that look, I got you that time."

Arthur sighed, closed his eyes and with a frown, rubbed his head. This was way too much to handle, way too early in the morning. He removed his hand from his eyes and found Alfred's warm smile, and eyes melted him. He couldn't resist smiling back. "I suppose you're right. I'll try not to let his idiocy get to me." The were broken from their moment by an irritating laugh.

"Awww! What a heartfelt moment" Gilbert said with a smirk, cutting in between them, winking at both.

Arthur glared at him and opened his mouth to respond, but Yao cut in. "Gilbert and Arthur. Both of you shut up!" He yelled. "We don't have time for your stupid arguments about Arthur and Alfred's romance, we need to start their training".

"TRAINING?! Arthur will be good!" Alfred said while laughing,

"I wish the both of you luck on your training" Yao said

"Thanks" Alfred and Arthur said, with contrasting enthusiasms. Arthur was more busy throwing glares at Gilbert, who was whispering profanities to Arthur about what Alfred and Arthur did last night in their room, laughing when he saw a faint blush on Arthur's flustered expression. Before Arthur went over there and punched Gilbert, Yao stood up suddenly, catching everyone's attention.

"Oh, before you go I want you to see something, let me just… I put it right over…" Yao looked at the spot where he left the piece of paper only to find that it was no longer there, a breakfast plate was what he found instead. His eyes slowly moved toward the spot he hoped it wasn't in… the middle of the table. "Ayya! Why did you move piece of paper guys, do you have any idea how long its going to take me to find it in the this huge mess?!" Everyone looked round guiltily.

"Well you wouldn't have so much trouble if you had a better organization system. How did you survive so long with this mess?" Arthur protested. He eyed the heap of papers in the middle of the table. Arthur couldn't stand the unorganized pile, it irritated him to no end.

"Yes, I know it's very unorganized but everyone is so busy and refuses to help." He shot accusing look at everyone, but they all turned back to their conversations, ignoring Yao.

"Well how about I help you organize this tomorrow? I can't stand seeing this mess." He added with disgust.

"Thank you, Arthur. I appreciated that."

Kiku nodded and turned to look at Alfred "Alright. Alfred we may have no ways to train you to use your real power, but, nevertheless, I can teach you what we know about sword combat which may come in handy."

"Alright cool!" Alfred replied with optimism and shot an award-winning smile at Arthur.

"You have to train hard Alfred" Kiku added with a sudden serious tone. "I take sword fighting very seriously, so don't be lackadaisical."

"A-Alright" Alfred replied feeling a bit creeped out, what the hell did "lackadaisical" mean? He shot a worried glance at Arthur, who chuckled at Alfred's reaction, but turned his attention to his trainer, who had made her way to them while Alfred and Kiku were talking.

"Arthur, are you ready for your training?" Lili said with a warm smile and enthusiasm.

"Yes. Thank you" Arthur replied with a smile.

When walking to the door, Alfred pulled Arthur close and whispered into his ear. "Unfair. I think you got the nice trainer, mine is kinda… scary."

From Across the room Gilbert laughed "I heard that, you know!"

"How? I wasn't even loud!" Alfred yelled, turning around, pulling Arthur with him, almost causing him to fall.

"What, you forgot already? I told you I can read minds!" He said with a smirk. "Every thought you have, I watch like a TV. Privacy is non-existent"

"Can you always hear everyone's thoughts?" Alfred asked, thoughtful.

"No, I can concentrate on who's mind I want to read."

"Why do you keep picking me and Arthur?"

"Well, I haven't watched porn in a while!"

"I BEG YOUR-" Arthur yelled but was cut off.

"Alright, enough! Alfred and Arthur, you'll eat on the way there since we already lost quite a bit of time and we need to get as much time for your training as we can." Liz said, handing them both bananas and apples, which caused Gilbert to burst out laughing, get up drunkenly, and walk out of the room through the opposite door "I'm going to wet myself at this rate!"

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"Alright lets start the lesson." Kiku said, his pace was fast but he was very silent when he walked, almost ninja-like. Looking up, Alfred realized it was a beautiful day. He was still eating his apple while they and marched through the grass. The sun was shining brightly and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, but it wasn't uncomfortably hot, it felt perfect and familiar. Alfred took a deep breath, trying to calm down, as he struggled to walk along side Kiku. He was about to learn sword fighting! How cool is that? He was very excited and could barely wait, but he wondered why they were outside, wasn't it dangerous? Oh well, with his kickass sword he woudn't need to worry about that, he could easily protect...

"First" said Kiku, and Alfred was taken from his thoughts, and realized Kiku has stopped behind him "I'm going to show you some basic cutting techniques, than if you do well enough and we have time, I'll show you some blocking. Ok?"

"Gotcha, Kiku!" Alfred said with a wide smile, enthusiasm jumping from his face, and Kiku smiled at him, at least he wasn't lackadaisical.

"The first sword cutting technique I'll be showing you is called the basic overhead cut. I will demonstrate first, and then I will give you a sword to try it." Alfred nodded and Kiku preceded to demonstrate.

"Alright, first you want to hold the sword with your left hand near the bottom of the handle, and you right hand above your left." Alfred clumsily copied him with his arms, concentration on Kiku's face. "You then lift the sword above your head, with the sharp part of your blade facing your enemy and quickly extend your arms forward."

"Ok, simple enough!" Alfred said.

"We'll see, repeat it with a sword" Kiku said while pulling a sword from it's sheath, taking it from a bag that reminded Alfred of a golf bag. Alfred picked up the sword excitedly, expecting it to glow the bright blue it did when he saved Arthur in the forest, but to his disappointment, it didn't. It still had a faint blue glow to it but the blue was nowhere near as bright and vivid as it was before.

"Amazing! Is this your power, Alfred?" Kiku gasped, gazing at the sword.

"It is, but I think it's weaker or something. It's not glowing as bright as before when I saved Arthur."

"Perhaps its because you don't know how to control your powers yet, I mean you are still a beginner. Plus didn't you say you don't have magic in your world" He comforted Alfred

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Now, show me the overhead cut."

"Oh that easy thing? Alright, like this right?" Alfred asked as lifted the sword above his head.

"No the sword is a little too high above your head, do it like this."

Alfred continued practicing the technique until kiku was satisfied. "Fast learner. Nice job, now I will show you something a bit more complicated, the Giri-side cut. This one is similar to the overheard cut, it's just that this one is to the side. While keeping your hands in the same position, with the sword facing horizontal, you swing the sword. It's like you're drawing a curved line out in front of you like this." Kiku swung his sword to demonstrate, then asked Alfred to try, he quickly got the swing, and moved quickly through Kiku's lessons, impressing both of them.

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Arthur and Lili had stayed at the library for their training, while Kiku and Alfred went outside for theirs. It was a fairly small library holding about 10 times it's capacity in books, which were shoved into the sides of libraries or kept in a pile, all sizes and colors, everywhere. Some of books were on magic, some were about history, and some were just stories for entertainment. It was near impossible to tell which ones were which in the labyrinth of papers. Lili said that it was important that Arthur read up on the history of magic to get better background knowledge which can help him understand magic itself. He had to do that on his own time though. Lili was showing him how to perform the basics of magic to be able to perform high power spells later.

She weaved around the library and Arthur tried to keep up, though he tripped in the occasional book on the floor, and once he knocked over a pile of books taller than he was, which he repeatedly apologized for, no matter how many times he was told that people did it all the time.

"Alright Arthur!" She let down the boxes she was carrying in an old wooden table next to a separate room, accessible through a small arc in the corner of the library, with blue and green writings on the floor and walls. She turned around and smiled brightly at him. "Today I'm going to teach you a very basic attack magic, that's basically like a ball of energy that you throw from your hand.

"Sounds good." Arthur said with a nod. He briefly noted that the writings in the room looked similar to the ones back in the house back on Earth.

"When performing magic there are a couple things you need to make sure are correct. Understand? If any of these thing are done incorrectly, the magic won't work." Arthur nodded. "The first thing you want to make sure is right is your stance when casting. What you want to do is first have your spread a little wider than shoulder length apart and have your right leg in front of your left with your knees slightly bent." Lili demonstrated each step as she described them.

" Than you want to have your right hand out on front of you with your palms facing down and your left down to the side." After Lili showed Arthur how the completed stance looks like she continued to explain. "you have to make sure you maintain this stance as you cast otherwise your spell could fail. Got it? Now you try."

"Alright" Arthur mimicked Lili's stance.

"Good but don't bend your knees so much, alight?"

"Oh so like this?"

"Perfect!"

"What do I do next?"

"The next thing that you have to make sure you do is focus. Concentration is very important when casting. You have to have a clear target and focus on each word of the spell. This is probably the hardest part about being a caster because you can't get distracted if you're fighting enemies and your comrades get hurt."

"That is difficult"

"I'm still working on that myself. Hopefully it will become easier as I get older. The last thing you need to know about casting is obviously the actual spell." She giggled "Of course you have to have the spell memorized since you can't be reading the spell off the book while casting."

"Not to worry, love, I'm an expert at memorization" Arthur replied confidently.

"Arthur, a small thing to keep in mind. These spells aren't in English… They're in Latin."

"Oh well THAT complicates things quite a bit. I mean I took a little bit of Latin back in my world for two years but-."

"That's good! That means you have a basic idea of pronunciation, but don't worry, that's why I'm here. I'll help you until you can do it on your own. I'll give you some books about Latin and, of course, I'll always be around when you ask for help, so don't be shy. While we don't usually need the circle, you will be using one since you're learning. It makes it a lot easier to perform spells if you have a large circle with both colors. When you become more skilled you can simply draw it on your hand or think about it." She pulled back her sleeve and in the back of her hand, the same circle was drawn, but it was only green.

"Right now I'm going to help you memorize and pronounce this simple spell:" Arthur saw Lili walk out into the labyrinth, heard several books fall followed by the russel of papers, and saw her come out with a large and dusty book and dropped it loudly on the desk causing the table to shake under the weight. Arthur flinched from the sound that echoed into the empty room in the corner.

Lili smiled at Arthur's face of astonishment, opened the book, and started flipping through the pages. "I'm going to teach you very basic attack magic."

Arthur was mesmerized by the book, he was going to have to memorize all that?! It was huge! It must have had thousands of pages with each page having dozens of spells. "Lili, how much do you know from this book?" Arthur turned his head to look at her, but was unable to take his eyes off the book.

"A considerable amount!" She said proudly. "When I was 7, I started learning. My father taught me the basics. I used to sneak down here and read until late. I would get grounded for not staying in my room, but I would just do it over again, and now I continue to learn it on my own." He eyes looked up unseeing and she smiled, her mind was in the past reliving the night in the library.

"Your father did?" Lily flinched, she was pulled back to the present, and her face showed sudden realization, then a subtle sadness.

"Yes, but let's please get back to the lesson." She breathed in and looked at Arthur, handing him the book. "Here is the spell I'm going to teach you" Lili pointed to a sentence in the book that has a picture of a person in a weird stance. Arthur looked at the book and saw the spell written as _veni foras navitas _than next to it the English translation, come forth energy. He noticed that the ink in which the English translation was written in looked much newer than the rest of the page. "Okay now repeat after me…"

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"Do it again" Kiku said for what had to be the hundredth time. Alfred let out a groan of frustration and made the sword move again. He was confused! Didn't he impress Kiku with how fast he was learning? Why is he making him repeat the moves so many times? He did it right the first time, plus he wanted to move on "Do it again."

Alfred stood up from his stance and put his free hand on his face, wiping off a bit of sweat "Ugh, come on! I've done it a million times already! Can't I move on?!" He walked over to the water container they brought along and drank thirstily. Kiku looked walked over and took the water bottle from him, getting Alfred's shirt wet in the process.

"What are-"

"Alfred, you have to master the basics first. Sword fighting is more than just swinging a sword. It's a part of you, an extension of senses, of yourself." Kiku closed his eyes for a minute and became quiet, serene, taking deep breaths. Alfred burst into laughter.

"Come on kiku! An extension of yourself? What's with the Hollywood crap?"

Kiku opened his eyes gave Alfred his water container and a confused look. "Hollywood?"

Alfred chuckled and sighed loudly "Never mind, forget I said anything."

"I do not know what you are speaking of, but I assure you that I am serious."

Alfred groaned in annoyance and let himself fall backwards onto the ground with a loud thud, causing Kiku to flitch. He was about to ask Alfred if he was alright but changed his mind with he saw the relaxed expression on Alfred's face. "You're killing me Kiku! This sounds way more complicated than I thought it would be." It was getting late and they had been doing this for hours. Alfred was getting tired of swinging the sword around and he was wondering how Arthur's training was going.

"Hmmm, I think, if you really do not think you are going to make any progress, we could work at how to strengthen your magic instead."

"How are we going to do that? I thought my magic was unique" Alfred raised his head from the ground to look down at the sword in his hand, it was still glowing but it didn't seem to glow as bright as the first time. There had to be a reason why his magic was so much weaker but with no one knowing anything about his magic he did see how that could be possible.

"I'm not sure but there are plenty of books at the base about the history of Etruria, perhaps I can find something that might help you, in the meantime I can continue to show you swords moves as well as explain what I mean by the sword being an extension of yourself." Kiku was quiet for a moment, then he asked "Alfred, you said before that the sword isn't shining nearly as brightly as before, the first time, when you and Arthur had encountered that animal, right?"

"Yeah…"

Kiku whispered quietly "Defensive magic? Attacking? Both? Well can't be both, too advanced plus he couldn't be… Well then, how can I trigger his supposedly…!" He gave an inaudible gasp of realization, widened his eyes and looked at Alfred, who was lying on the ground with his eyes closed, relaxing.

"Maybe Gilbert was right"

"Huh? 'bout what?" Alfred looked up, confused.

"Alfred, my apologies but I have to use the restroom, I will be right back. It's a 15 minute walk, so feel free to relax for awhile"

"Yay!" Alfred cheered and smiled wide. It was about time, he was physically and mentally exhausted and could use a long break. Kiku rolled his eyes at Alfred's reaction but gave him a genuine smile. "I'll be right back, I'll refill your water container if you want, but don't move!"

"Don't worry 'bout me, I don't think I can move anyway, and thanks dude!"

Kiku walked back, out of Alfred's sight, hid behind a tree and revealed his true intentions. He tried to remember the nightmare hallucination spell, but he hadn't done it in awhile…

"Oh, please let me remember it, what was it...somnum something... Ah that's it, _exterreri solebat alucInatio _I'll have to make it so he feels something too, otherwise it won't be as effective." He chucked "Alfred, in order to be able to teach you what you need to know and to get a good idea about what your power is, I'm ashamed to say that I will have to use the nightmare hallucination spell on you." He laughed, it's not like Alfred could hear him "Gilbert said that them two were in love, right?"

Kiku thought about the green and blue circle and said the spell, directed at Alfred.

Alfred had no idea what happened.

He rushed to his feet after he heard a loud rustling sound getting close to him and found.. "Arthur?! What are-" Alfred was knocked down by Arthur who had been running in his direction, knocking them both to the ground. His sword flew away from his hand. When Alfred looked up, he found Arthur smiling down at him, his green eyes shining brightly, however Alfred found them cold, different. However Alfred couldn't help but blush at the proximity anyway and looked away "Arthur?! What are you doing here? What about your training?" Arthur just smiled brighter and then rested his head on Alfred's chest, and snuggled there. Alfred couldn't make sense of the situation until he heard another thing approaching them at a high speed and turned to see Kiku, with his sword high in the air, ready to strike, charging directly at them.

"What wait Kiku! What are you…!" Alfred, seeing the murderous look in Kiku's approaching eyes, grabbed Arthur and pulled him away from Kiku's swing making them both stand up; however Alfred got cut instead. "OW! KIKU WHAT THE HELL?! WHY ARE YOU-" He was stopped by jumping back when Kiku lunged at him. He grabbed Arthur's arm and pulled him behind him with his good arm. His other arm was bleeding quite a bit, but he didn't care. "Kiku, calm down, what did we do? What happened?" He jumped back, slamming into Arthur and making both of them fall down heavily on the ground, Alfred turned around and placed a protective hand in between Arthur and Kiku. He looked around for anything he could use to defend himself and Arthur. Arthur tapped his shoulder and handed Alfred his sword that he had tossed away earlier. He grabbed it and jumped up and clashed his sword, now glowing a blue as bright as the one he remembered, against Kiku's. When the swords met, Kiku was thrown back forcefully against the grass and Alfred turned to look at Arthur.

"Are you okay?!" Arthur pointed at Kiku, who stood up and attacked Alfred again, his sword going straight for Arthur and Alfred, fueled by fear and rage, met the sword with his own and pushed back Kiku. He started swinging his sword up and down, from side to side, and attempted to used the technique Kiku himself had taught him. It came as naturally as walking which shocked Alfred. Nevertheless he still fought extremely clumsily as he was only using the basics and Kiku was a trained swordsman who used his speed to run up to Alfred, kick his stomach, winded him, and tripped him, and caused him to fall to the ground. He then walked over to Arthur. Alfred turned to look and found Kiku holding Arthur's neck with his arm, and a sword to his neck, Kiku was smiling while Arthur looked absolutely petrified, his eyes begging Alfred to save him. Kiku began moving his sword so it touched Arthur's neck and began to slice, which drove Alfred to his instincts. He struggled to breathe but stood up, and lunged at Kiku with his blindingly bright blue sword and with his hurt hand, he bragged Arthur's waist and pulled it against his chest, hugging him, and pointing his sword at Kiku's heart. He was panting heavily, and the cut on his arm hurt him, but he didn't care.

Alfred had no idea what happened.

Kiku and Arthur both, simply, vanished into thin air. Kiku, the real Kiku, appeared behind a tree and walked in Alfred's direction.

"Alfred, it was a hallucination, nothing more. Calm-"

"HOW THE FUCK DO YOU EXPECT ME CALM DOWN AFTER YOU" He pointed his sword, bright blue, at Kiku "TRIED TO HURT ARTHUR AND ME IN THE PROCESS?! MY ARM…!" He turned to look at his hurt arm, and found nothing there, not even a scratch "But how…?" He dropped his sword and looked at Kiku.

"It was a hallucination, nothing more than a dream. Now we know that your powers multiply when you or someone you love is in danger"

"Excuse me?"

"This was done to see if your powers were-"

"You did this?"

"If we can understand your powers better, we may be able to use them more effectively against-" Kiku stopped when he looked at Alfred's face, it showed hurt, worry, exhaustion, pain, disbelief. Kiku looked away "Its for your own good"

"I'll… Go back to the base after I've calmed myself down, I can't…" He walked away from Kiku, throwing his sword violently against the floor, and putting his hands in his pockets, breathing deeply. He stopped and told Kiku, in a cracked and quiet voice.

"Call Arthur for me, tell him to meet me 10 minutes from here, in the direction I'm walking, please."

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After Arthur mastered the stance and memorized how to say several spells correctly, he and Lili headed to the corner room to combine both of them. Lili went to get some tea, after she discovered that Arthur quite fancied tea. Arthur waited in silence for a while but he didn't mind. He was thinking about Alfred. He wonder how his training was going. Arthur frowned. He better not be complaining and trying to give up. Alfred was notorious for giving up if something became too hard.

"I swear if that git even CONSIDERS giving up i'm going to…"

"Arthur?" Arthur snapped out of his thoughts to see that Lili had already set his tea cup in front of him, and was offering him a bit of sugar.

"Oh I'm sorry Lili, thank you."

"I was saying that this is the area where I always train and it's going to be where you are going to be practicing as well."

"I see."

"I will demonstrate first, and then you try, ok?" Arthur nodded and Lili continued. Lili walked to the middle of the circle and told Arthur to stand back. Just like they had been practicing, Lili took a wide stance, so that her right foot is in front of her left, she bent her knees slightly, took a deep breath, and put her right hand out. Her eyes focused on an area in the distance and she muttered the spell under her breath. The bright circle on the ground and hand glowed green around her. Arthur was wide-eyed from looking back and forth between Lili and the green glowing circle but had to close his eyes because a strong gust of wind blew around the room. It began to make a flat twister of wind in front on her and began to glow into a white ball of energy which shot out of her hand. The area where she was looking towards exploded in a white light and the impact made the ground shake, causing Arthur to almost lose his balance. After the flash disappeared the location of the impact was greatly damaged, and Lili turned around, smiling proudly with her head to a side and her hands in her back.

"Wow! That was very impressive!" Arthur's was astounded by the damage this simple magic inflicted. Lili gleamed at the compliment she received. She was proud of her skills and the fact that she continued to grow in strength.

"If you think that was cool, look at this" She got back into position and focused on the spot once more. She muttered another spell, one that Arthur didn't recognise. A circle of light appeared near the damaged area and the bits of wall floated back to their place, and a flash of light left the wall looking like nothing had happened. "That was amazing! You're good!"

"Thank you, now you try." Arthur nodded and mimicked Lili's stance to cast the spell. He focused his eyes his eyes on the area that Lili just repaired and said the spell aloud. The wind was the same, and a green ball of light shot out of his hand, similarly to the light he used in the forest, but this light was much, much dimmer. It hit the designated spot, but no where near as powerful as Lili's, it barely made an impact. Arthur gave Lili a confused look.

"Did I… Do something wrong?" He thought he copied Lili exactly, so why was his magic weaker than it was in the forest? What triggered the explosion of green back in the forest?

"You didn't anything wrong, but…" She seemed thoughtful for a moment, her eyes widened, but she shook her head. It was impossible. "It's interesting because when people use that spell, the energy color is always white, yours is green." She walked to him and gave him a small affectionate punch to his arm. "I suppose that has to do with the fact that your magic is special."

This didn't make any sense to Arthur, and it annoyed him. If his magic was so special then why was it so weak? Why was he able to do whatever he did back in the forest without even thinking about it but now he can't? Plus, his green light was much, much brighter. Perhaps with more training it will get stronger. "Well why don't you try again?" Arthur decided to practiced that one spell a couple more times and work on the others tomorrow.

"Arthur!" He heard Kiku's voice coming in from the labyrinth and turned to face him, if Kiku was here, then Alfred was here too! He could watch me perform magic and-

"Arthur, Alfred said he wants to see you. He's outside, about a 30 minute walk I believe, he couldn't have gotten far, he walked in the direction of the sunset outside. He looks… upset"

"Upset? Is he alright?"

"I think you should just go see him." Arthur gave Kiku a confused look but agreed and headed out.

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Arthur walked began walking in the direction that Kiku pointed him towards, west. The sun was starting to set towards the horizon and the sky was turning a vibrant mixture of pink and orange. It was a wonderful sight to say in the least but Arthur was way too focused on Alfred to enjoy the scene he was worried about him. Why did he request to see him outside instead of the base? Did training go ok? He wasn't hurt or anything was he? No way, if he was hurt Kiku would surely force him to get treatment. Well if that wasn't it than what was it. Arthur continue west until, in the distance, he saw the back of ALfred's head. "Hey ALfred!" Arthur yelled as he ran towards his best friend. ALfred, snapping out of his thought when he heard Arthur's voice, turned around.

"Arthur." Alfred said in a cracked voice. Arthur knew that voice. That voice he uses when he's very upset, he could recognize it anywhere. Sure enough when Alfred's face came into view he had the gleam in his eyes, he wasn't smiling his bright smile that Arthur loved so much. He looked like he was on the verge of tears.

"Alfred what's wrong? Are you ok?" Arthur asked in a worried voice. Instead of answering, Alfred pulled Arthur's arm and pulled him into a hug. Arthur's eyes widened in shock. What happened? He wanted to ask Alfred what was going on but he didn't have the heart to push Alfred away. He hugged Alfred tight and ran his fingers through Alfred's hair. Alfred wasn't crying but he was very upset, Arthur couldn't stand seeing him like this. Alfred pulled away after a while and his sapphire eyes met Arthur's emerald. Alfred smiled but not his normal smile. He was really worrying Arthur. "Alfred please tell me what's wrong" Arthur said with pleading eyes.

"Nothing, I'm alright I was just worried about you... ouch!" Alfred rubbed his forehead where Arthur just smacked him. "What the hell Arthur? What was that for?"

"Idiot! I thought there was something wrong with you, you scared me!" Arthur glared at him, not the death glare he gave Gilbert,it was more of the "Im so pissed at you for worrying me" glare. Alfred started laughing and Arthur couldn't resist laughing as well. "What's with you, why were you worried about me? I was at the base the entire time."

"Don't worry about it. I'm sorry for worrying you." Alfred was smiling his brilliant smile so that meant he was back to normal. "How was your training?"

"Oh It was very interesting. I was taught how to cast a spell and I succeeded, sort of."

"What do you mean sort of?"

"Well, I did everything right but my magic was much weaker than it was in the forest."

"Me too. When i first grabbed my sword it glowed a dim blue but then..." ALfred trailed off. He wasn't sure if he could explain what happened to Arthur... Hell he wasn't exactly sure what happened.

"Then what?"

"Umm i'm not sure, I'll explain later ok?" Arthur eyed him for a moment but shrugged his shoulders and looked where the sun was finally setting. The colors had turn a deeper shade of orange and pink than it was before. Arthur did always love sunsets. They were very beautiful and serene. They helped clear Arthur's mind and relax him. He was so caught up with gazing at the vibrant colors that he didn't notice that Alfred sat down on the grass and was pulling Arthur's arm. "Sit down Arthur, lets watch together." Alfred smiled up at Arthur.

Arthur nodded his head and sat next to Alfred. They were silent for a while, just watching the sun disappear over the horizon. It was nice sitting like this after a long day of training, especially since he was sitting next to Alfred. As the sun began to descend so did the temperature. A gust of wind blew from the north and it caused Arthur to shiver and rub his arms. Alfred noticed this. "You cold?"

"A little." Alfred responded to this by scooting closer to Arthur and putting his arm around his shoulder, he pulled him in close to keep him warm. Arthur grew stiff at first from Alfred's actions but soon began to relax, he could feel Alfred's body heat, it was very inviting, he leaned in closer to the warmth. Arthur could feel today's training catching up with him and he began to feel tired. Alfred was not helping with that. Arthur was leaning in closer to Alfred and closer to the ground without realizing he was. Soon he was on his back with his arms around Alfreds waist, he was practically asleep. ALfred laid on his back as well. However, was not as relaxed as Arthur. He was thinking about what had happened today during training, what Kiku had said.

When Arthur was in danger his magic was as strong as it was before. So he can he only use it when danger was around? Or was it because of Arthur? It was too much to think about but he can't stay out too long, he had to get back to the base before it got dark out. He turned his head toward Arthur, seems like he fell asleep. Arthur hugged Alfred closer and Alfred cheeks turned red, he just realized how close Arthur was to him. "Wow Arthur must really be out of it. No way he would hug me like this if he were awake" Alfred said aloud but kept his voice down to not startle Arthur. He smiled at Arthur and hugged him close to his chest. This was probably be the only time he could hug Arthur like this without havig him calling him an idiot and pushing him away. Alfred looked at Arthur's face as he slept. _He looks so cute when he sleeps_ Alfred thought to himself, smiling and running his fingers through Arthur's golden hair.

The sun was set completely now and it was getting dark, they had to get back. Alfred sighed and seated himself up, getting a little dizzy from doing it so quickly. He looked toward Arthur and shook his shoulder. "Arthur, we have to get back. I don't want them to worry about us" Arthur swatted Alfred's hand away and slowly got up while rubbing his eyes. He yawned and looked up at Alfred with confused eyes.

"What?" He asked in a drowsy voice.

"Come on, we gotta get back." Alfred stood up and held out his hand for Arthur to grab. Arthur looked up at him with droopy eyes, ALfred smiled back. Arthur rubbed his eyes again and gabbed Alfred's hand. "Are you ok Arthur? Can you walk back?" Alfred asked as he helped Arthur off the ground.

"Yes i'll be alright. Thank you." ALfred nodded and pulled Arthur alongside him. To Arthur's surprise, he hadn't let go of his hand from when he helped him up. In fact, he didn't let go at all until they made it back to the base.

TBC...

**Author's notes:**

**Hello guys! I'm so sorry it took me so long to update. Stupid college getting in the way! On the bright side this is my longest chapter. You will notice that this chapter is better than my other three. Thats cause i gots me an editor! She is amazing! She gave me great tips and went through and corrected stuff. Thank you so much anitta! I Don't know what I would have done without you. So I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Thank you everyone who follower, favorited, reviewed, or just read. Mean a lot to me. Please let me know what you think and i'll update soon! Love you! 3**


	5. Chapter 5

Arthur woke up the next morning, feeling well rested and content. He must have fallen asleep while he was with Alfred. The last thing he remembers is looking at a sunset with him, Alfred must have walked him back to the base. Arthur opened his eyes and found himself face to face with Alfred. His breath hitched as he fully woke up and realized he was sleeping next to Alfred. Really, really close to Alfred. He had an arm around Arthur's waist and their faces were so close he could feel Alfred's breath on his lips. Why were they sleeping next to each other? Did Alfred get so tried he just fell asleep on the bed? Well, whatever the reason Arthur had to get out of this situation, before anyone sees and assumes the wrong thing. By anyone he was mostly talking about Gilbert. That smug bastard… Arthur tried removing Alfred's hold from around him. It wasn't very easy though, that boy had a tight grip. Every time he would try to escape, it seemed Alfred held on tighter, perfect.

"Alfred," Arthur said while poking his friend in the arm. "Alfred, get up." Arthur mental cursed himself for even trying such a stupid tactic. There was no way Alfred would wake up like that. "Alfred get your arse up!" Arthur yelled into the American's ear. Alfred groaned and let go of Arthur so he could turn around. Arthur sighed in relief as the pressure around his waist was relieved. Though he liked having Alfred's arms around him, he wouldn't want Alfred to wake up in shock like that. After all he knew Alfred only liked him as a friend. Arthur sat up and stretched his arms above his head with a yawn. Today was another training day wasn't it? He got out of bed to wash up, deciding that as long as Alfred wasn't clenched around him, than he can let him sleep for a while longer.

Since they arrived in this world they haven't seen anything aside from the miles of plains and the underground base. Arthur was curious as to what else this world held. He was sure there was more people here, a place to buy goods but they seemed very far from it. He made mental note to ask Liz later on. Aside from the magic, this world seemed the same as their own world. It seemed like they had traveled to the past since the clothes and weaponry seemed European medieval, if Arthur can remember correctly from history. He knew very little about this world and it bothered him. Maybe he could find a book in the library that could help him. In the meantime he should take a bath to get ready for another day of training. He saw that by the bed there were some more clothes for him and Alfred. When did they get there? Someone must have put them there while he and Alfred were asleep. So someone saw them that close together. Arthur sighed to himself; this is going to be a long morning.

Alfred slowly opened his eyes, waking up. He was so sleepy when they went home yesterday, he just plopped himself on the first solid surface he saw, guess it was the bed. He couldn't really remember if he put Arthur on the couch or if they both slept on the bed, but it didn't really matter since Arthur was already awake. He sat up and stretched with a yawn as he waited for Arthur to come out of the bathroom. He thought about the training he did last time. It was interesting that he can only activate his power when Arthur was in danger. Was there another, more efficient way? Maybe. For now it seems like the only way. So the only way he could practice his more powerful magic was to image Arthur was in danger? Well he couldn't put Arthur in real danger so they have to use Kiku's spell again. Would it work anymore since he knew it wasn't really Arthur? He sighed and shook his head. This was too much to think about.

Arthur closed his eyes and tried to relax in the warm water. Were they ever going to get back or were they stuck here forever? He knew they had to defeat Ivan and all but it seemed none of their new friends are very close to it. They seem to know very little about him. Only that he's been alive for a long time due to some weird magic they guess and that they need some special magic to defeat them. Since his and Alfred's magic is different they assume that's the special magic they are looking for. Arthur wasn't sure if their magic was the special one. It didn't seem it was the most powerful or anything. The only difference was the magic was stronger when together, or when either of them is in danger. To Arthur it seemed like more of a disadvantage than anything special. He didn't understand anything, something that Arthur couldn't stand. He got out of the bath and drained the tub. He grabbed the towel and dried himself off before putting on his clothes and exiting the bathroom. He greeted Alfred with a smile when he saw that he was up.

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After they were both finished they left their room and went to find everyone at the table. Yao was organizing papers or at least trying to with everyone yelling. Honestly was it always this hectic when they were all together? Arthur sat down, carefully avoided catching Gilbert's eyes in case he or someone told him about him an Alfred this morning. He sat next to Liz who was looking over some papers. "What are you looking at, if you don't mind me asking?" Arthur asked. Liz blinked and looked towards the voice.

"Oh hello Arthur, I'm just looking over some information about Ivan that we collected a few days ago" she said kindly. "Whenever we report new information we just throw it on the table and hope Yao would sort it out. We soon discovered, doing that isn't the best idea." Arthur rolled his eyes. These people were something else. "So now I'm trying to see if we did end up learning anything new." She looked back at the paper, her eyes scanning the information. Arthur looked at the huge piles of papers that seemed to only increase and get worse since the two days they have been here. Honestly, these people say that Ivan is huge concern, yet they don't even organize their information enough to tell if they are getting any closer. Perhaps he could get through training early today and help organize the papers. He did want to learn more after all, he could read up on the history if he had time.

Alfred was sitting next to Natalia, who was staring at her plate and not saying much. Honestly what was with this girl? Was she shy or just didn't want to talk about anything. Alfred couldn't even remember if he heard her voice at all while here, he was kind of interested. "What's your story?" Alfred asked with the kindest smile he could muster. Natalia flinched slightly at the loud voice since she didn't expect the newcomer to talk to her. She turned her head to face the American but said nothing. She only stared at him in silence. Alfred felt a chill go down his spine from the cold stare; she didn't seem to like him very much. Alfred was determined though, he refused to give up. "You just gonna keep staring and not say anything? I mean I know I'm good looking and all." Natalia rolled her eyes at Alfred's comment.

"Don't flatter yourself" she said. "I don't see the need to explain myself to you when we only just met. I don't understand why everyone trusts you so much. Just because your magic is different? For all we know it could be different because you work for Ivan." She turned back away and left it at that. Alfred blinked at her respond. She did kind of have a point. Who was to say that Alfred and Arthur made everything up just to gain their trust? Alfred pouted and turned away, she didn't have to be so mean though. Alfred let his eyes wonder until he saw Kiku cleaning his sword. He might as well ask Kiku now about the training, he hopped he wasn't as mean as Natalia.

"Lili, how much more must you teach me before I'm ready to learn on my own?" Arthur asked as he ate.

Lili thought for a moment. "Well you can do a few basic attacks and defenses. You are a very fast leaner, are you sure you have never done this before?" She joked and giggled. "Hmm well if you remember everything I taught you yesterday than you should be done by today. I know your magic isn't really strong but I can't help you with that. The thing about magic is it's mostly self-taught. So if you continue to practice and learn spells your magic should get stronger." Arthur raised his eyebrows in surprise, already? He didn't question it but it did seem odd that he would be able to lean magic so fast even though it's his first time using it. He shrugged and smiled, well at least with this he wouldn't be ignorant for too much longer.

Alfred sat across next to Kiku and watched him clean his sword. Kiku noticed and looked up, meeting Alfred's gaze. Kiku smiled softly and went back to cleaning his sword. "Are you still upset with me for causing the hallucination yesterday?" he asked.

"No." Alfred said looking down, "I was upset at the time because I was worried about Arthur."

"I see." Kiku said finishing up wiping down his sword and looking at it in the light before putting it back into its sheath. "Is there anything else you would like to ask me?"

Alfred nodded. "Yes I was wondering about my training." Kiku put his hand up, signaling that Alfred stop talking so he could explain.

"Alright first thing is you are moving very fast with your training, even I didn't learn as fast as you did, which is odd considering it's your first time using a sword. With a few more sessions you may be able to be exceptional. As for what I did yesterday I'm afraid it will no longer work since you will know it's not Arthur. I can train you to use the sword without the help of your magic but you will have to learn how to control the magic part. Maybe it works when you think of Arthur or maybe when Arthur is in danger. However it may work, I don't think I can be of much help." Alfred nodded at the new information, well that answered his question. He wished he knew more about the reason he and Arthur are stronger together. There seemed to be no information about them though. He finished eating his food and stood up when it was time for him and Kiku to go. He walked over to Arthur and smiled at him. "Good luck with your training,"

Arthur smiled back. "Same to you too."

"Oh I almost forgot about you two!" an obnoxious voice came from the far corner of the table. "So what's this I hear about you two cuddling this morning?" Arthur groaned and buried his face into his hands. They were this close but the git just had to bring it up. Who told him, that's what he wanted to know. "How long are you two going to deny it?" Alfred was about to answer when Kiku cut him off.

"Gilbert we don't have time for you, we have to go," Kiku gestured for Alfred to follow him. Alfred went with him out of the base and back to the training site they were at yesterday. Gilbert rolled his eyes and mischievously looked back at Arthur. "Well at least your still here eyebrows," Arthur glared at the other while Gilbert looked back with amusement. "Why do you get so defensive if there is nothing going on between you too?"

Arthur rolled his eyes. "That's none of your bloody business!"

"Oh and to answer your question we do have other places and people here of course but you see this place is secluded. We aren't exactly favored among many of the guards that roam the more populated parts of this world. If we stay in towns for a long time or draw attention to ourselves it could mean trouble. We leave when necessary through a portal that leads out of these plains to where the people live." Arthur blinked and opened his mouth to say something. "The clothes you are wearing are barrowed. We all make our own money by doing small tasks individually around towns and such. We are each responsible for our own needs except we have to come up with five silver pieces by the end of the week to buy food for all of use. It's not a hard task and we work together well but you and your friend are no exceptions. You will have to do the same. We are giving you a minor break right now considering your situation but know it won't last."

Arthur stared at Gilbert in astonishment. He knew he could read minds but it was still quite a shock for him to answer so many questions without Arthur saying a word. Gilbert smirked at Arthur's expression. "I know, I know I'm awesome." He stood up to stretch. "Come on Liz we should go to town." Liz nodded and followed Gilbert out the door. That left Arthur, Yao, Natalia, and Lili. Natalia looked at the huge pile of papers on the table. If she stayed that would mean she would be forced to organize them with Yao…That did not sound like fun. "I'm going to see what kind of information I can find," she said standing up. It wasn't really a lie but she mainly wanted to leave in fear of organizing. She quickly walked out the door before any protests from Yao could be made. Yao sighed as Natalia left and his eyes drew back to the papers. He groaned and let his head fall to the desk. "You know, this wouldn't be a problem if you didn't keep putting it off." Arthur said. He looked towards the pile and back up at Yao feeling a bit of pity for him. "Alright, If I finishing training early than I promise to help you."

Yao smiled up at Arthur and nodded, "Thank you very much, it means a lot to me." Arthur smiled back and turned around to head to the library with Lili to start day two of their training.

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Alfred's eyes scanned his surroundings, paying attention to every detail. His ears tuned into every rustle of the trees, every crackle of the branches, every sound that could be made. He clenched his sword tightly in his hand and waited. Kiku was stealthy and made absolutely no sound, a skill he had, as he approached Alfred from behind. This was a part of his training, listening carefully and paying attention to details. Well at least this is what Kiku told him to do. He didn't know Kiku was going to attack him, but if he did it wouldn't be a surprise attack! He lifted his sword and was about to strike Alfred.

Alfred did what Kiku told him to do, pay attention to detail. He wasn't really sure what the point of this was; he could here if a monster approached! However, he couldn't really argue with Kiku, not that he really wanted to. He suddenly felt light headed and he abruptly turned around swinging his sword in the process and heard a loud clash as it hit the metal of Kiku's. He shook his head and tried to figure out what just happened. Kiku tried attacking him from behind? What a cheap trick! Kiku blinked in shock and retracted his sword. "How did you do that?" Kiku asked bewildered. "How did you hear me coming? I know I didn't make a sound." Alfred looked just as confused as Kiku did.

"I didn't hear anything." Alfred said. "I had no idea you were going to attack me. Oh and what the hell! You were going to attack me!"

"Relax, it was the dull side." He said. "You would have been fine. So you didn't hear me? Than how did you know you were supposed to turn around?"

Alfred thought about the question for a moment. Why did he turn around? Actually when did he even turn around? He rubbed his head in frustration. "I have no idea." He said. "I just got a headache and the next thing I knew, I heard the sound of clashing metal."

"You just keep getting stranger."Kiku said. "Well anyway that was very impressive. It's hard to believe you didn't have any training prior to this. It takes a long time to be able to dodge sneak attacks. You should be good to fight on your own really soon." Alfred nodded and smiled. Kiku without warning swung his sword at Alfred again. Alfred squeaked but successfully blocked it. "Alright, spar with me." Alfred nodded and tried his best blocking all the quick jabs Kiku was throwing at him.

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The green energy hit the target area again making Arthur smile in success. He and Lili were practicing for a few hours now and he hadn't been failing. Lili smiled at the success as well. "Alright what is your secret?" She joked. "I was considered a fast learner and it took me a month to master the basics. If I didn't know any better I would say you're from this world and have been practicing magic for a while now." Arthur rolled his eyes.

"I'm not from this world I swear." He said. Lili nodded.

"I know, if you were from here I think Gilbert would be able to pick up your lies when reading your minds." She said. "It's just strange is all, why would two boys from another world start surpassing our skills as if you've been masters for years?" She shook her head. "There isn't much more I can teach you basics wise. All I can do is teach you how to read spells in Latin. You can earn on your own after that." Arthur smiled and nodded at her.

"Lili, are there any books I can read that can tell me about the history of this place?" he asked.

"Of course." She said. "You can look over any of the books here." Arthur looked over to where Lili was pointing to. It was a large pile of books of various shapes and sizes. They looked worn out and old. The bind holding the pages together was torn and falling apart. It seemed that they would all fall apart to the touch but Lili reassured Arthur that the books were sturdy enough. He walked over to the pile, grazing his hand over the covers, glancing at each of the titles. Not all of them were about the history of the land. One of the was about the history of magic, also a helpful tool, and there were two written in latin so Arthur couldn't read what it said, he had to learn that language soon. He picked up the book he was looking for titled " Etruria in the past". He remembered Etruria was the name of the land, this would be beneficial. He tucked the book into his arms, planning on reading it later. "Alright, lets see how much Latin you know." she smiled, gesturing for Arthur to sit by her.

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Arthur finished his lesson for the day and he went down to help Yao like he promised. He found him sitting at the table, going through the huge pile of at least he was trying. Arthur sighed at the huge task he had ahead, it was worth seeing what the whole table looked like though. He walk into the door, causing Yao to look up from the papers. "Arthur, you actually came" he said joyfully. Arthur nodded and sat next to the other.

"I did say I would help." he eyes scanned the individual pieces of paper, wondering where to start or how he was even suppose to organize this. He didn't get this information, how was he suppose to know? Yao answered his question as if he could read minds as well.

"You just look on the top right corner", he stared. "It should have a number. Just match the corresponding numbers for now. You see the numbers are what area they were collected from. We'll go into further detail later." He looked back at the papers in his hands, putting them into the correct piles he created. Arthur picked up the first paper his eye caught and looked over it. It was information regarding the special magic that Ivan uses. It states that he uses an older magic but no one seems to know anything more about it. It's rumored that it was a magic kept secret from the public due to it's strength. Arthur shrugged at the information and created a pile for it. He continued to look through the pile, occasionally scanning over the information. From what he could tell, none of this was from a very reliable source. It seems more like a collection of romars than actual information about Ivan, why did people know so little about him anyway? He's been around long enough hasn't he? Perhaps he controls the flow of information. After a few hours of mindlessly organizing numbers Arthur and Yao both agreed it was time to call it quits, putting away the piles they made away. Arthur sat down and threw his head back from exhaustion. Who knew sorting papers could be so tiring? No wonder Yao was so reluctant, doing it on his own and all. "I've been wondering," Arthur started, glancing up at Yao "Why have you six decided to take on this task? Have you've known each other for a while? I don't quite understand." Yao looked up at his question then to the side.

"Well it's not that people like him really, and it's not like they haven't tried, it's just really hard. It's almost impossible to find information about him. No one knows anything. Even the people close to him have admitted that. He is untouchable. He is just too powerful. Information is a very powerful tool, we don't even have that. You will know more about what he does if you read that book. I think it can explain better than I can. As for us, well, we all have our own story. I'm not going to share them with you cause i'm not sure if they would want me to. The answer is no, we didn't all know each other from the beginning. We kind of met when we ready to give up. Liz was the first to start this little group we have. She really is amazing." he smiled sadly at the memory. Arthur decided it was best to not ask anymore questions for now. He knew more about the group now, it was still a mystery in a way. He wanted to know more about them all, what drove them to keep trying even though it was nearly impossible. His thoughts were interrupted when the door was suddenly slammed open. He flinched from the noise, his head shot toward the door to see his favorite person, Gilbert. "I am back!" he laughed. "Did you miss me?" Liz pushed him in, nearly knocking him over.

"Move you idiot." she said stepping over him. "I brought some food, are the others back yet?"

"Not yet." Yao said. Liz shrugged and put the food on the table. Gilbert starting eating, claiming that he didn't have to starve because those idiots are taking too long. They rest decided to wait. "How is your training going?" Lis asked Arthur.

"He is doing very well." Lili said, walking into the room.

"Where were you?" Liz asked her.

"I was trying to figure out how I was suppose to teach him Latin." She replied. "I never thought I would have to teach anyone after all." She went over to the food and opened up the container, making a face. "Liz I don't like fish, remember?" Liz gave her an apologetic look.

"Sorry I forgot." Lili nodded reassuringly.

"It's fine, i'll just eat the rice." She closed the container back up. "What's taking the others so long? I know Alfred is with Kiku, what about Natalia? Is she ok?"

"I sure hope so." Liz said. "If she's not back soon, i'll have to try and find her."

"Ah she'll be alright." Gilbert said. He was leaned back in his chair, his feet up on the table. "I'm sure no one will mess with her, she's kind of scary." he shivered.

Liz stood up and walked over to Gilbert. "That is rude." she said to his face with a glare. Gilbert pushed her away.

"Alright Jeez, why do you have to stand so close?" he asked looking away. Liz blinked at his reaction and shrugged her shoulders.

The door opened again and Kiku and Alfred walked in. Alfred looked exhausted, sparing was hard work. He was improving but keeping up with Kiku was such hard work. He walked over to Arthur, sat next to him, and leaned his head on the others shoulder. "Tired." he mumbled. Arthur smiled sweetly and rubbed his hair, Alfred leaned into the touch.

"Gilbert and Liz were right, you do make a good couple" Lili said.

"Not you too." Arthur groaned. Why did everyone think they made a good couple?

"Cause it's obvious" Gilbert answered.

"Stop reading my..."

"Guys, Natalia should have been back by now." Yao interpreted. "I should go check on her."

"I'll come with you." Liz said standing up as well. "You guys stay here, in case she come back." They nodded and watched Yao and Liz walk out. Hopefully there would be no trouble.

TBC...

**Hey sorry I took so long, college and all. I hope you like this chapter! I didn't really proofread this chapter cause I was so excited to update. I hope it's ok. So I wanted to ask you. A couple of my friends said I should up the rating of this, what do you think? Let me know. I'll update soon. **


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